Baseball Headline

Left-hander/designated hitter Brian
Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) claimed the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the
Year Award that was presented at the College Baseball Night of Champions in
Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday night. He became the first recipient from the
University of Florida.

At the same event, Brad Wilkerson
(1996-98) became the first Gator to be inducted into the National College
Baseball Hall of Fame and catcher Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) was
recognized for winning the 2012 Dick Howser Trophy as College Baseball’s Player
of the Year and the 2012 Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s top catcher.

A
first-team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association
(NCBWA) and Perfect Game, Johnson was a second-team All-American by Baseball
America and Louisville Slugger. Chosen first-team All-SEC for the past two
seasons, he was 8-5 with a 3.90 earned run average on the mound and had 73
strikeouts in 90 innings, to go along with a .307 clip, 41 RBI, 24 runs, 13
doubles and six homers.

The
southpaw tossed his first career complete game to oust fourth-ranked South
Carolina from the SEC Tourney on May 25 and matched his career high with four
hits in the semifinal round the following day against Vanderbilt. He was named
to the 2012 SEC All-Tournament Team at both pitcher and designated hitter.

During
the NCAA Gainesville Regional, Johnson limited the high-powered Georgia Tech
offense to one run on three hits over five innings on June 3 as the Gators
cruised to a 15-3 victory over the Jackets to punch their fourth-straight
ticket to Super Regionals. A first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox, he batted
.429 (3-for-7) in the sweep of No. 11 NC State and tied the second encounter
with the Wolfpack with a solo homer in the eighth inning of Florida’s eventual
9-8 triumph in 10 innings.

The only three-time
All-American in Gator baseball history, Wilkerson was named the 1998 Collegiate
Player of the Year by the NCBWA and won the Smith Award given to the National
Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year as selected by CoSIDA. A finalist for
the 1998 Golden Spikes Award, he was a first-team All-American selection by
Baseball America, Baseball Weekly, Collegiate Baseball and Sporting News that
year. Wilkerson re-set UF career batting average, HR, RBI, runs, walks and
slugging percentage standards, broke seven individual season batting records
and tied/re-set seven individual performance marks during his spectacular
career.

With 55 career home
runs, he became the eighth player in SEC history to hit 50 or more home runs.
In addition, he reached base safely in 141-consecutive games at one point of
career and reached base in 190 of 195 career games. Wilkerson was the first
player in NCAA history to hit 20 home runs, win 10 games and steal 20 bases in
a season (23 homers-10 wins-21 stolen bases in 1998).

An ABCA All-South Region
and All-SEC recipient all three years of his career, the Owensboro, Ky., native
was the Most Outstanding Player of the 1996 NCAA East Regional held in
Gainesville and earned a spot on the 1996 NCAA College World Series
All-Tournament Team. His efforts helped the Orange and Blue to a combined
record of 136-60 (.694), a pair of CWS appearances (1996 & 1998), two SEC
titles (1996 & 1998) and three-straight SEC Eastern Division crowns
(1996-98). A first-round pick of the Montreal Expos with the 33rd overall
selection in the 1998 Draft, Wilkerson played for the Expos (2001-04),
Washington Nationals (2005), Texas Rangers (2006-07), Seattle Mariners (2008)
and Toronto Blue Jays (2008) in his eight-year MLB career.

Zunino,
a consensus first-team All-American, the Dick Howser Trophy recipient, Baseball
America’s 2012 College Player of the Year and the first Johnny Bench Award
winner from UF, is one of three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award that will
be presented next Friday, July 6. He finished as the Gators’ “Triple Crown”
winner, leading the team in batting average (.322), RBI (67) and homers (19),
and paced the Orange and Blue in total bases (164), doubles (28), sacrifice
flies (11) and slugging percentage (.669). He was also 9-for-10 on the
basepaths. A two-time, first-team All-SEC recipient and two-time member of the
league’s All-Defensive Team, Zunino registered a .994 fielding percentage, with
three errors in 510 chances, and threw out 20 runners who attempted to steal on
him.

Zunino
was voted to the NCAA Gainesville Regional All-Tournament Team for the
third-consecutive season after belting homers in consecutive games against No.
24 Georgia Tech and he led the Gators with a .500 (4-for-8) clip in the pair of
victories over NC State that punched Florida’s return ticket to Omaha for its
third-straight appearance at the NCAA College World Series. The first-round
pick of the Seattle Mariners at No. 3 overall was 8-for-25 (.320) during the
NCAA Tourney with team highs in slugging percentage (.720), RBI (12) and homers
(3).